Storms
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Cloud Lightning

US: Tornadoes, storms across South kill at least 10

Suzi Parker
Reuters
Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:36 UTC
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© EPAStudents look at what is left of their school after the tornado hit the town of Tushka, Oklahoma
Violent storms ripped across the southern U.S. overnight and Friday, killing at least 10 people including three children, and cutting a path of destruction through Little Rock, Ark. and Jackson, Miss., authorities said.

Six of the seven fatalities in Arkansas were caused when uprooted trees smashed into houses, National Weather Service meteorologist John Robinson said.

The trees were falling through houses, Robinson said, adding that he could not recall a time in recent memory when so many fatalities occurred because of fallen trees in Arkansas.

In Oklahoma, two elderly sisters were killed when a tornado hit the double-wide mobile home they occupied, according to school board President Bennie Evans.

Among the dead in Arkansas Friday were two boys, ages 6 and 7, and an 18-month-old girl. The seven-year-old and his mother were killed after a tree fell on their house in Little Rock.

"All I heard was a boom boom," said a neighbor, Jennifer McShane, while surveying the destruction.
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Cloud Lightning

US: New Storm System Bringing Dangerous Thunderstorms AND Snow!


AOL News
Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:00 UTC
Another round of dangerous thunderstorms will sweep eastward across a large portion of the United States in the coming days, and this storm system will be accompanied by something that we may not have expected to hear about again until next winter -- a swath of accumulating snow.

The thunderstorms will pound areas that have been hit hard by severe weather during what's been a very stormy month, spreading from the Plains on Thursday to the Southeast on Saturday. The snow will fall from the northern Rockies to the upper Midwest, with the chance for some late-season snow in parts of the interior Northeast over the weekend.

The most likely location to receive a disruptive amount of snow -- locally over 6 inches -- will be in western and central South Dakota from later Thursday through Friday, where the National Weather Service has issued winter storm watches. The snow will accumulate more on unpaved surfaces than on roadways; however, travel will be disrupted, especially at night. The snow will be accompanied by winds that will reduce visibilities to under a half-mile.

The snow will begin today and tonight in an area where late-season snow is not uncommon -- the mountains of the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies. Depending on the path of the storm, a second area of wet snow might develop in the higher elevations of upstate New York and New England later in the weekend.
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Bizarro Earth

US: 10 tornadoes hit Wisconsin on Sunday


Bloomberg Business Week
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 04:19 UTC
The storm system that hit northern and central Wisconsin on Sunday now has a place in the record book, with the 10 tornadoes tying the April record set in 1984, the National Weather Service reported Tuesday.

Eight of the 10 tornadoes were the weakest category, EF1. However, an EF2 tornado with a maximum wind speed of 125 mph hit Adams County and an EF3 tornado with a max wind speed of 140 mph hit Lincoln County, according to the weather service.

There also were many reports by trained weather spotters of large hail and thunderstorms across most parts of the state, including a report of hail stones nearly 3 inches in diameter and straight-line wind gusts up to 80 mph.
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Attention

Dust storm halts Kuwait oil traffic


United Press International
Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:00 UTC
A severe dust storm paralyzed Kuwait Wednesday, suspending air traffic and oil exports, authorities said.

The Kuwait Petroleum Corp. also advised incoming ships to hold off on docking, the official Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reported.

A top oil official, Sheik Talal al-Khaled, said some maintenance work at refineries was halted as a precaution. But he said supplies to domestic and foreign customers will not be noticeably affected.
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Cloud Lightning

Rains pound Grenada, flooding forces evacuations


Foxnews.com
Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:13 UTC
ST. George's, Grenada - Unseasonable heavy rains have caused landslides on the Caribbean island of Grenada, where officials on Tuesday relocated families away from swollen rivers that flooded homes and destroyed small fishing boats.

"We should be in the dry season, but we are experiencing so much rain," Grenada Prime Minister Tillman Thomas said while he toured the island's northwest region.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Possible Seven Wisconsin Tornadoes May Be Record

John Rondy
Reuters
Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:25 UTC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin - A powerful storm system that moved through the nation's midsection over the weekend caused what may be a record-breaking seven tornadoes in Wisconsin, officials said Monday.

"It's one of the most significant tornado outbreaks in April," said Rich Mamrosh, meteorologist for the National Weather Service. He said if confirmed, the number of Sunday night storms may have broken a record for a single day in April in the state -- the previous record was six.

Mamrosh said a strong low pressure system moved from South Dakota to northern Wisconsin Sunday, moving warm, moist air into the state, which was followed by a cold front, producing the storms.

A tornado in Merrill in the north-central portion of the state causing widespread damage to homes and businesses, said Captain Scott Krause of the Merrill Fire Department. Three people were taken to area hospitals.

Storms caused damage in other portions of the Midwest and south over the weekend. Iowa governor Terry Branstad declared a state of emergency after a storm Saturday that destroyed over half the town of Mapleton, but left no one seriously injured among its 1,200 residents, according to local law enforcement.

The peak U.S. tornado season lasts from March until early July, the period when warm, humid air often has to thrust upward against cool, dry air.
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Snowman

US: 10 inches of snow in Flagstaff, I-17 closed


Arizona Daily Sun
Sat, 09 Apr 2011 18:51 UTC
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Flagstaff resident David Ellsworth took this photo in his front yard on S. Gila Dr. at 10 am on Saturday morning.
A winter storm warning remains in effect through 5 pm as a spring snowstorm that has already dropped nearly a foot of snow in areas of Flagstaff continues to move across the region.

As of 10:30 am, the National Weather Service in Bellemont said it had so far received reports of 12 inches of snow in Grand Canyon Village, 10 to 11 inches in Flagstaff, 10 inches in Parks, 7 inches in Williams, 4.5 inches in Kachina Village and 4 inches in Doney Park. Sedona received an inch of snow all in one hour.

The Arizona Department of Transportation said that the I-17 North is closed between State Route 179 and Flagstaff because of the snow. ADOT is encouraging people to avoid driving unless necessary.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Tornado causes 'major devastation' but no deaths in Iowa city

Ben Smith
CNN
Sun, 10 Apr 2011 18:41 UTC
An Iowa community was shut down much of Sunday afternoon while emergency crews remained hard at work, sifting through wreckage caused by a wave of powerful tornadoes that swept across the state overnight.


The twisters caused major damage to about 60% of Mapleton, a city of about 1,200 residents, Monona County Sheriff Jeff Pratt told reporters Sunday.

It was all part of a violent storm system that struck overnight, originating in eastern Nebraska and following a warm front across northern Iowa, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Frank Boksa.

But despite causing extensive damage, it did not lead to any fatalities, said Stefanie Bond, a spokeswoman for Iowa's Homeland Security & Emergency Management Division.
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Cloud Lightning

US: The nation's weather


Mercury News
Sun, 10 Apr 2011 18:38 UTC
A very large storm will move out of the Rockies and into the Plains, the most active weather system in the country Sunday. The particularly large storm will spread from the northern Plains through the central Rockies and into the upper Midwest.

While the spring storm will initially lack the moisture coming up from the Gulf of Mexico, it will begin to produce strong thunderstorms from Texas through Illinois as it moves eastward later in the day and on Monday. These thunderstorms will have the potential of turning severe, with damaging wind, hail, and even possibly tornadoes.

Residents in the Southeast should monitor weather conditions due to approaching severe weather.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Gaston, South Carolina pelted by baseball-sized hail, heavy rains

Kevin Ellis
Gaston Gazetter
Sat, 09 Apr 2011 18:19 UTC
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Motorists battered by pingpong- and baseball-size hail, torrential rain and wind gusts of up to 60 mph found shelter whereever they could find it Saturday afternoon, including the Kangaroo Express gas station at I-85 and U.S. 321.

"We've had three storms come through, so I've run across a lot of scared customers," said Shaquan Hill, a clerk at the store. "It's not real safe for them to be out there right now."

Hill was telling nervous customers to stay put inside the store as the third storm began rolling through Gastonia just before 7 p.m., although not everyone was heeding her warnings.

"A lot of people just feel like they need to get where they're headed," she said.
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